Question : Five PCs hooked into a LAN and an additional Cat 5e cable. Plug into the Cat 5 and “Cable not plugged in” Why?
When I plug into the Cat 5 cable, the adjacent two PCs are knocked offline. This LAN worked fine until two weeks ago, when the modem’s power supply shorted out and my ding-dong boss fixed it. All five PCs work fine other wise. It’s only when I plug a laptop into the extra Cat 5 cable that it knocks the adjacent PCs offline and the laptop just keeps attempting to acquire a connection. I appreciate anyone’s help!
cat 5 cable

Best answer:

Answer by jamesmicoff
Consider the possibility that the router also took a hit since the modem would have been connected to the lan at the time.